Disrespect

Rick Moran has a good piece up about how the RNC is disrespecting bloggers with the crappy accomodations/lack of wifi situation.

What’s the problem with the Republican party and bloggers?

Here on what is passing for “Bloggers Row,” there is plenty of grumbling about the accommodations supplied by our hosts. Some descriptives are not printable.  Most reflect a huge disappointment with the way the GOP has shunted most of the bloggers off to the side, far from the action, dispersed throughout a gigantic “Press Filing Center” where the working media comes to hook up to the net and file their stories.{...}

The dungeon that the GOP has put bloggers in this time around would be familiar to Torqumada and his buddies who made the Spanish Inquisition such a great party. And the labyrinth one has to navigate to find the darn place would tax the abilities of a carrier pigeon.  I honestly felt like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs when I went out for a quick smoke. Not that it would do any good. The food on our level is so bad that I have no doubt some ravenously hungry media type would have preferred the breadcrumbs to the greasy, tasteless crud they were serving at the kiosks. If I wanted the same stuff they serve at a hockey game, I would go to the Libertarian convention down the way.

Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs found herself having to sit on the floor to blog. She wrote the RNC and got a nice little note back apologizing for the fact that they don’t take bloggers very seriously. They were contrite that they could “only work with the resources” they were given and said they would try to bring some people by to interview. Pamela is still waiting.{...}

Go read the whole thing. 

Just for the record, up in the nosebleed section 222, there is no food.  You can't even buy a bottle of water.  But you can buy a load of Republican swag.  Take that for what it's worth. 

All I really know is that It's a hassle to get over to St. Paul.  It's a hassle to get inside the X.  It's a hassle to get set up, and then to find out the entire reason you're there---to provide instantaneous coverage----is non-existent.  That you've, basically, been thwarted because the one thing that makes the blogosphere run---the internet---isn't readily available.   The RNC wanted us bloggers at the convention to provide coverage, yet they deny us the one thing we really need?  I don't claim to know what's going on with that, but it's a massive mistake, and I'm telling you right now, that every time the special press liasion drops yet another email into my box, listing out this or that speech, I'm not feeling very quid-pro-quoish. 

Am I being ungrateful, considering they had to do a doubletake on my entrance to the show in the first place?  I don't think so.  They need me, and other bloggers, as much as we need them.  We're not asking for much: just the opportunity to do what we came there for, and for that, we need the internet.